Clinical outcomes at medium-term follow-up of COVID-19

Abstract

Background: The long coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) syndrome is defined as persistent physical, cognitive and/or psychological symptoms that continue for more than 12 weeks following the acute illness. Methods: In all, 2,646 patients were randomly selected from all individuals who were diagnosed with COVID-19. They were interviewed so as to assess the persistence of symptoms and health-related quality of life. Blood investigations were also taken. Results: The median (interquartile range (IQR)) age was 44 (31–55) years and 48.6% were males. Five per cent had been hospitalised. Follow-up was for a median of 142 days (IQR: 128–161). Twenty-two per cent of the participants claimed that they were feeling worse than they felt before COVID-19. The most common symptoms were anosmia, ageusia, fatigue, shortness of breath, headaches and myalgia. The Short Form-36 questionnaire revealed that 16.4% felt that they were somewhat worse than in the previous year and that hospitalised patients fared worse in all domains except for role-emotional. New-onset diabetes was similar to the rate of undiagnosed diabetes in the background population. Hospitalised patients had significantly higher liver transaminases, fasting plasma glucose, glycated haemoglobin, uric acid, red cell distribution width, mean platelet volume, triglyceride levels and troponin levels but lower estimated glomerular filtration rate and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol at follow-up. Discussion: A significant proportion of patients were symptomatic at a median follow-up of 142 days and felt worse than 1 year previously. Hospitalised patients had more biochemical and haematological abnormalities compared to non-hospitalised ones, suggesting ongoing inflammation in subjects who were more severely affected by the disease.

Association between brain fog, cardiac injury, and quality of life at work after hospitalization due to COVID-19

“…A recent Brazilian study of 480 subjects who presented with similar to ours demographic data showed instead that elevated troponin I levels in the acute phase of illness independently increased the risk of post-COVID cardiopulmonary symptoms, tiredness and fatigue within 90 days since hospital discharge [23]. Moreover, as shown in a large Maltese cohort of more than 2600 COVID-19 patients, significantly higher troponin T levels were found among cases previously hospitalized compared to those treated as outpatients during 5 month follow-up that might reflect ongoing inflammation in participants with initially more severe disease [24]. Similar conclusions came from an observation of 128 patients previously hospitalized at the University Medical Center in Texas where 77% of individuals had elevated troponin T levels of those being tested at follow-up [25].…”

Challenges and Opportunities Associated with Lifting the Zero COVID-19 Policy in China

“… 27 , 28 This would cause lasting symptoms, reduced quality of life, and loss of productivity. 27 – 29 Given the high incidence of approximately 24–59% in COVID-19 patients, 29 , 30 there is a need for awareness of the timely diagnosis and effective management of long COVID-19. Among the reported symptoms and imaging characteristics, CT abnormalities (60.5%) were the most prevalent in patients with the wild-type COVID-19 strain, fatigue (66.1%) was the most prevalent in patients with the Alpha variant, having more than one general symptom (28.4%) was the most prevalent in patients with the Omicron variant, and myalgia was the most prevalent in patients with the Omicron variant.…”

Treatments of COVID-19-Associated Taste and Saliva Secretory Disorders

“…However, there is increasing evidence that taste and saliva secretory disorders persist in subjects who recovered from COVID-19, as well as other sequelae such as fatigue, dyspnea, cough, headache, neurocognitive impairment (or brain fog), and hair loss. Persistent taste disorders have been reported by many COVID-19 survivors who were followed up after recovery from the disease [ 13 , 14 ]. The prevalence was 39% for dysgeusia at an 8-month follow-up [ 11 ], 19% for ageusia at a 12-month follow-up [ 15 ], and 22% for taste or smell impairment at a 12-month follow-up [ 16 ].…”